Friday, July 14, 2017

Hello and happy summer! For once, this recipe is not my mom's! Since I am really into baking these days, I
figured out that, since I am in France (yes vacation! for 2 1/2 months - too much right?), I should use this time to bake. The weather in Normandy (one of the places I'm staying over the summer) has been sunny and really hot
; and then rain, rain, rain!

With my grand-parents, my brother and some of
my cousins, we went to a Gospel concert organized in the village's church.
After the concert, we had a "collation" for the artists. We helped out to make
something for them, and it had to be a dessert. Good for me, I was up for
it! My grandmother told me I should make a chocolate cake, but I thought
it was too ordinary. I thought that maybe I could make a lavender
cake. Since there is fresh lavender (and no chemicals
on them!) in my grandmother's garden (yes lavender in Normandy!), I did not have to purchase any.

It was a success - they all loved it! So I even made it again for
a "goûter" (afternoon snack) and it got eaten quickly! Hope you love it
too! Bon Appétit!

For one pound cake

200g flour plus some of the mold

8g baking powder

2 ts organic lavender buds and some for decorating

100g butter + some of the mold

200g sugar

3 egs

125ml whole milk

For the lemon icing:

150 g powder sugar

10 g water (more or less depending on consistency). .

1 organic lemon

Infuse lavender in milk (I generally do it while we eat or a few hours before baking the cake; the milk should really taste like lavender)

Preheat oven to 360 F

Soften butter in microwave oven - it has to be soft but not melted

Mix sugar and butter together until white and double in volume.

Add the eggs, one at a time

Mix the flour and baking powder and add them to the sugar mixture

Pour the milk (with lavender buds) and mix well with a spatula (my mom calls it the indispensable tool (outil indispensable) in a kitchens)

Butter + flour the mold

Pour the mixture in it and bake 40 -45 min

Unmold the cake and let it cook on a rack

While it cools down, prepare the icing

The icing has to be liquid enough to drip on the sides of the cake but solid enough to create an opaque layer.

In a pot, mix water and powdered sugar

Add a few drops of lemon and half of the lemon zest

Pour on the cake when the cake is cool and decorate with lavender sprigs

Personal Comments

You could use smaller individual molds - just adjust cooking time to 15 -20 min

Make sure to use organic lavender as you don't want to eat pesticides!

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

It's Summer again! Well, technically, we are still a few weeks away from Summer but as I have come to realize "Summer time" is a very cultural theme. For French people, l'été really means July and August - the time of year when everyone gets some time off. June is when everyone starts to think about their Summer vacations ; this is why I really like going to France in June. Days are really long, Parisians are starting to slow down, eating outside ,and easing into their Summer days....
In the U.S., Summer officially starts at the end of May with Memorial Day weekend and finishes early September with Labor Day. This is when plane tickets prices soar; this is when everyone starts barbecuing or, if in Philadelphia, talking about their weekend at the Jersey Shore....

So, it's Summer again in the U.S. and time to entertain outside. Since we only live in a two-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia, we can not entertain a lot during the cold months of Fall/Winter/early Spring.We are fortunate, though, to have a large roof top in our apartment building, which we use as an extra room everytime it's hot enough to sit outside. This varies a lot - we experienced a very hot Winter, which made it possible to eat outside in February! Most generally, we really start opening up the terrasse at the end of April. This spare open space with full view of the Benjamin Bridge enables us to host a few parties during the warm days of Summer in Philadelphia...

Since apéritif is one of my favorite meals, we tend to organize large "apéros" on our roof top. This makes it easy to organize and host: no back-and-forth with the kitchen downstairs : the food is already out. Everybody can help themselves with what they like (or want to try).... It's just a nice way to chill out and enjoy the company of friends.

Among all the things we make are the usual suspects : Guacamole, Hummus, white beans and fennel dip, salsa and chips, nuts, cake aux olives et au jambon, charcuterie and cheese, etc. This year, I made a few variations of pissaladières.Pissaladières are from the South of France and traditionally involve caramelized onions, black olives, anchovies on bread dough. Since I know few people who like anchovies, I tend not to make them with anchovies, especially when a lot of children are coming over. This year, I had extra feta cheese so I added feta instead of anchovies since we were having more than 12 kids over with their parents. I don't bother making my own dough anymore (my sourdough starter died a while ago) so I just purchase pizza dough at the local supermarket.
Really easy to make - and as usual, something you can improvise around to adapt to the palate of your guests. It's also very easy to bring Pissaladières to a Summer pique-nique or your next BBQ since it's officially in season!Bon Appétit!

Ingrédients

A ball of pizza dough

Onions (more than you think you need - I use 3 large ones for one Pissaladière)

Herbes de Provence

Anchovies, black olives, feta cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400F

Lay out the dogue in a square pan

Cook the onions in olive oil until translucide but not caramelized (although you could caramelize them)

About this blog

Welcome to WhatAreYouFeedingYourKidsThesedays. I created this blog to share easy-to-make, healthy, affordable, recipes and ideas to feed your kids (and the entire family). Because cooking healthy for the family should be easy! Bon Appétit!

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About me, Gaelle

A French thirty-something mother-of-two living in Philadelphia. While I am no professional cook, I try to make sure my family eats healthy food overall. What I do best: improvise easy healthy meals. What I like best: seeing my children (and friends' children) enjoy new food. What I don't like? Foodwise? Chicken feet and raw garlic!